Posted on 02/24/2005 8:28:51 AM PST by 2banana
Students perform play based on hate crime By NAOMI L. JENKINS Bucks County Courier Times
Middletown - Matthew Shepard, 21, had been a University of Wyoming student for only a few months when he was the victim of a hate crime in 1998.
Few in the town of Laramie knew him as well as his former roommate and good friend Romaine Patterson. The two previously lived together in Denver.
She talked publicly about Shepard, who was gay, for three minutes at a vigil the day after he died - five days after the attack.
"Once I got up and spoke about Matthew, my life was changed because the national media had my name, and my phone rang constantly after that," Patterson told drama students at George School in Middletown.
She told the students that if she started crying before the crowd of 5,000 strangers at the vigil, she knew she wouldn't stop, so she fought back the tears.
The George School students have studied and rehearsed for four months for their play, "The Laramie Project,'' based on the murder. The drama recounts Shepard's brutal slaying at the hands of Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson on the outskirts of Laramie, a cattle town in Wyoming.
The two men are serving life sentences for the crime. They met Shepard, who stood just 5 feet, 2 inches tall, in a Laramie bar, pretended to be gay and then lured him to their pickup truck. They drove to a secluded area where they pistol-whipped, burned and robbed him. Shepard was found 18 hours later, tied to a fence and left for dead.
Like a documentary, the play recounts the crime. The actors portray Laramie residents who give their opinions of the attack.
Directed by acting teacher Nelson Camp, students will perform "The Laramie Project" at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the George School's Walton Center.
Debbie Lo, 17, portrays Patterson in the play.
"I'm honored to be able to play her because I think she's a very, very important person in the play, very courageous, very brave," Debbie said.
She hopes the play will make people think twice about how they judge others.
"I don't think enough people stand up and talk about an issue like this," Debbie said. "Hopefully they will realize how serious hate crimes are because it's not just somebody else's problem. It affects all of us."
Another student, Alley Mazzullo, 16, said the play is funny at times but poignant and educational.
She portrays a pastor's wife who doesn't condone homosexuality but is horrified by Shepard's murder.
"I think I've learned that even though people are not accepting [of others], they still value life," Alley said. "I want the audience to see there's a ton of different people out there. You can't just discriminate against one group because there are different types of people within that group."
Teachers said the play forces students to confront homophobia.
"It's been a powerful experience already," said Carolyn Belle Lyday, a religion teacher and adviser for the school's gay and lesbian club. "It helps people be honest about how they really feel."
Patterson, who lives in Brooklyn, worked for various gay and lesbian activist groups before founding an organization called Angel Action, which holds peaceful demonstrations. She travels the nation giving speeches and is a satellite radio talk show co-host for a 24-hour gay talk channel. Her show is called "Derek and Romaine."
"I love it. I talk to a lot of straight people every day on satellite radio. That is a form of activism that's very new to me," Patterson said.
She told kids she didn't set out to be an activist, she just wanted to do what was right.
"When you hear something that doesn't sit right with you, say something. That's what activism is. You don't have to scream or yell," Patterson said.
Patterson wished she'd have done more of that during her teen years that were especially difficult.
She came "out of the closet" at age 13 in her tiny home town of Ranchester, Wyoming, which has about 670 residents.
"A lot of people I'd known all my life suddenly didn't want to be my friend anymore," she said. "By the time I was 16, I had two bleeding ulcers and I had dropped from 140 pounds to 103. It was so stressful."
A girl in her high school used to follow her around reading the Bible to her.
Patterson said she wished that instead of ignoring that student, she would have turned and said, " 'That hurts my feelings. You're making me feel bad.' Sometimes people do these things and they don't think about how it feels."
Naomi Jenkins can be reached at 215-949-4190 or at
This one was up for a couple of days. I will admit I hit the abuse button three times.
What unbelievable tripe! As though mindless fact-free spew could subsitute for reality.
Too bad his idiocy wasn't left up for people to read the examples of what happens when objective reality is destroyed. Blind belief based on wants and desires, replacing eternal truth, will be the destruction of human civilization. Unless it's turned around, which I hope and pray happens.
Note my new tagline:
Too bad his idiocy wasn't left up for people to read the examples of what happens when objective reality is destroyed.
Plenty of examples still posted beginning here.
Excellent tagline, lj!
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